In the novel Ragtime, the character Coalhouse Walker Jr. turns to a life of violence after an incident procured by a bunch of racist volunteer firefighters. The Emerald Isle volunteer firefighter staff vandalized Coalhouse's car, when they detained him in order to make him pay a toll for passage on their road. Coalhouse is a black pianist, who in general was a very humble and obedient man, until that incident made him out to be a depraved killer. His change from a calm man into a violent one was also furthered by the death of his fiancee Sarah, who was killed by the Vice-President's bodyguards. The combination of events, both the loss of his future wife and the vandalizing of his custom-made car made Coalhouse turn to violence as a solution to his problems.
The author the novel, E.L. Doctorow uses this incident to poi
Doctorow also tries to balance the attitude towards Coalhouse's actions by offering other perspectives, if only a few, to the destruction of the firehouses. On page 176 he offers Father's strong and adamant thoughts, "Nothing under haven can excuse the killing men and the destruction of property in this manner." The same idea can be seen in an editorial written about the killings, "...[Coalhouse should] accept the principle that any man who takes the law into his own hands...defames the same justice he seeks to enforce" (201). The small viewpoint of condemnation in the book shows to us that Doctorow believes Coalhouse acted correctly.
nt out the extreme racial discrimination and ignorance of the white populace in the early 1900's. This occurrence is a harsh reminder of how the black people were persecuted in earlier ti
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